Santaluces Earns Second Straight Victory

Troy Steele rumbled and stumbled his way to an inside-the-park home run.

The Santaluces Chiefs had not been able to string two wins together all season. Until now.

After a 12-0 victory over Forest Hills on Monday in their first game of the Dave Manzo Spring Tournament, the Chiefs came right back on Tuesday and handily dispatched the Lake Worth Trojans by a score of 11-0 in their second game of the tournament.

Santaluces manager Nick Franco believes that his kids play better when they are relaxed and loose. He thinks that when things don’t go their way they tend to tense up and try to do to much, which was part of the problem when they got off to a sluggish 4-9 start to the season.

“That’s been our M.O.” Franco theorized. “When we get a couple of runs early, we seem to play a lot better. When we get behind early, we put too much pressure on ourselves as hitters and they try to do too much.”

Maybe the Chiefs were still riding the high of their win on Monday, because they looked sharp right from the get-go on Tuesday. Luke Stemle popped the first pitch of the game into No Man’s Land in shallow right field for a single and Santaluces was off and running, literally. Stemle promptly stole second and then took advantage of a passed ball to reach third. One batter later, another passed ball brought him sliding home for the first run of the game.

After the early hit, Trojan starter Christian Baez issued a walk to Auston Smith and hit Joe Strzelecki with a pitch. Justin Tworek then singled to load the bases for Troy Steele, a former Trojan who now mans left field for the Chiefs. On a 2-0 pitch, Steele turned on one and struck a hard ground ball that split the shortstop and third baseman for a two-run single.

On Monday, Tyler Robichaud was on of the Chief’s heroes, hitting a three-run home run over the center field fence. On Tuesday he was a late scratch, replaced by Jacob Collins, a newcomer to the Santaluces squad. Collins followed Steele’s single with one of his own, but to the other side of the field, splitting the first and second basemen and bringing home Justin Tworek for a 4-0 lead.

After that, Baez found his groove, striking out two consecutive batters and inducing a ground ball back to the mound to get out of the inning.

Up to this point of the season, Jonathan Wake had only pitched in relief for Santaluces. Because of the four game set-up throughout the week, Franco was able to afford him his first varsity start. While he struggled with his command early, Wake ultimately rose to the challenge.

He hit the first batter he faced with a pitch. Working at a brisk pace, he then fell behind the second, Jonathan Rodriguez, 3-1 before bringing the count back full. Rodriguez smacked the next pitch to third base, where Chad Tworek fielded it cleanly and threw to second for the force out of the lead runner. The throw to first for the double play sailed wide though, and Rodriguez was able to take second. Baez was able to get him to third with a ground out back to the mound but Wake struck out the next batter to strand him there.

Wake’s struggles with control continued into the second inning when he issued a lead-off walk to Chase Forrest.

B.J. Gilbert is the manager for Lake Worth and one of his key philosophies is to be active on the base paths. He wants to challenge defenses and try to force them into mistakes by running whenever the opportunity presents itself. With Forrest on first, he saw just such an opportunity and gave him the green light. The move did not pay dividends as Strezelecki gunned him down as he slid into second. It was Lake Worth’s only attempted steal on a day when the Chiefs seemed to beat them at their own game, swiping four bags in four tries. Still, Gilbert had no regrets.

Sebastian Campos had on of the Trojans three hits in the third inning.

“We’ve got to put pressure on the defense,” he proclaimed. “We’ve got to move our runners because right now, offensively, it’s not clicking for us. So we’ve got to try and do whatever we can to generate some positive energy in our team to get them going.”

There was plenty of positive energy in the Santaluces dugout. If the win on Monday sparked the Chief’s four-run first inning, than perhaps the first inning sparked their five-run third.

Steele once again got the better of his old school. Listed at 6’0″, 230 pounds, no one would doubt that he could crush a ball 425 feet to the center field wall, and that’s exactly what he did to lead off the frame. What no one would have guessed was that he would have the speed to round the bases before the Trojan fielders could relay the ball back to home plate. But that too was exactly what he did. After rumbling around the bases with all the speed his big frame could muster, he literally stumbled home, falling across the plate before bouncing back up in jubilant celebration.

When asked if he thought he would make it all the way around for an inside-the-park home run, Steele was emphatic with his answer.

“No,” he stated plainly. “I normally don’t get past second.”

He was a little more forthcoming when asked about his approach at the plate that led to a 2-for-4 afternoon with three RBIs.

“I’m good with any pitches low and stay away from the high pitches,” Steele claimed.

The next two Santaluces batters drew walks and Ben Fagan was hit by a pitch to load the bases with just one out. Stemle then showed some great discipline by working a full-count walk for a well-earned RBI.

After that, Forrest took over for Baez on the mound. Strzelecki and Justin Tworek tagged him for an RBI single apiece before the inning ended where it began: with Steele at the plate, this time bouncing into a 6-4 fielder’s choice.

In an effort to regroup, Lake Worth scattered all three of their hits in the third inning. First, Luis DeJesus hit a slow grounder towards shortstop. Fagan made a nice, back-handed grab of it deep in the hole and fired to first but DeJesus was able to beat the throw for an infield single. One out and two batters later, Sebastian Campos pulled a hard line drive to the hot corner for another base hit. One more out later, Baez bounced one back up the box for a bases-loading single.

With two outs, Wake dug deep and finished his outing strong, forcing Tyler Vandersande to bounce to first for the final out. That would be all for Wake, who bounced back from his rocky start to pitch three scoreless innings, fan three, and walk one while earning the first win of his varsity career.

“He did well,” Franco praised him afterwards. “He threw strikes and he kept them off base. He kept them off the scoreboard and got his first varsity win.”

Gilbert is unashamed to admit that Lake Worth is in the midst of the rebuilding process.

“We’re young,” Gilbert said. “As they keep maturing and learning the game of baseball we’ll start being more competitive.”

If the three-hit third wasn’t enough to make you believe him, the Trojan’s defense in the fourth inning should.

Luke Stemle scored the first run of an 11-0 Chiefs victory.

Collins started the inning by hitting a slow roller up the middle. Shortstop Kevin Hankla ranged almost all the way to second base to make the grab then fired it to first for a bang-bang play that went in favor of Collins. The missed opportunity only allowed him to shine brighter on the next play when he kicked off a 6-4-3 double play with an underhanded toss to second baseman Rodriguez. Rodriguez’s follow up throw to first was low and in the dirt but not so much so that Rocky Victorio could not dig it out.

When you’re young and inexperienced, you have to take the bad with the good though. A couple of errors in the following inning allowed two runs to score for Santaluces, making the score 11-0 and giving the Chiefs the chance to win early via the mercy rule if they could keep the Trojans off the scoreboard in the bottom of the fifth.

Case Wager, who threw just one pitch out of the strike zone in two innings of relief work, did his part to make that happen. Also instrumental in the effort was Strzelecki. Having already gone 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a run scored, he backed-handed a rocket that was pulled down the third base line by Campos and fired a bullet across the diamond for the final putout of the afternoon.

The win improved the Chiefs record to 6-9 and has them optimistic about their future.

“It was a good game,” said Fagan, also an ex Trojan. “With this tournament we’re looking to get back on track. With winning, we’re heading in the right direction towards the end of the season and can make a push for the playoffs.”

Franco is also pleased with the direction his group is headed.

“We’re starting to hit the ball. Starting to score some runs,” Franco said. “We were struggling earlier in the year, so I’m very pleased with how we’re starting to put it together.”

The Chief’s continue tournament play on Thursday against the Olympic Heights Lions.

Lake Worth falls to 1-12 with the loss.

Like Franco and his Chiefs, Gilbert is optimistic about his club as well.

“We’ve got one more year. This is another rebuilding season for us,” Gilbert said, “but after this year, we should start being very competitive.”

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